Spiral, Series 7, BBC Four review - hard-hitting return of our favourite French cop show

★★★★ SPIRAL, SERIES 7, BBC FOUR Crime, slime and real-life issues in a de-glamourised Paris

Crime, slime and real-life issues in a de-glamourised Paris

And welcome back to our favourite French cop show – perhaps our favourite cop show from anywhere, in fact – which has raced into its seventh series (on BBC Four) with some typically grimy storylines about death and lowlife in a very de-romanticised Paris. If you catch a glimpse of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, it’s only in the far distance across drab expanses of rain-soaked rooftops.

Giri/Haji, BBC Two review - inspired Anglo-Japanese thriller makes compulsive viewing

★★★★★ GIRI/HAJI, BBC TWO Inspired Anglo-Japanese thriller makes compulsive viewing

Two worlds collide after synchronous murders in London and Tokyo

Well here’s an interesting one. We’ve been up to our eyebrows in Eurocops for the past few years, but this Anglo-Japanese fusion from BBC Two (the title translates as "Duty / Shame") feels strikingly fresh and different.

My Life is Murder, Alibi review - whimsical tales of detection from Down Under

★★★ MY LIFE IS MURDER, ALIBI Whimsical tales of detection from Down Under

Lucy Lawless upholds the law as investigator Alexa Crowe

Lucy Lawless achieved cult status in the Nineties fantasy classic Xena: Warrior Princess, and later became a regular in such disparate creations as Battlestar Galactica and Parks and Recreation. In My Life is Murder, she joins the ever-expanding ranks of TV ‘tecs as Melbourne-based investigator Alexa Crowe.

The $50m Art Swindle, BBC Two review - ramblin' gamblin' man comes home to roost

★★★★★ THE $50M ART SWINDLE, BBC TWO Ramblin' gamblin' man comes home to roost

Vanessa Engle's story of art fraudster Michel Cohen is better than fiction

“It’s nice to make money – lots of money,” said Michel Cohen, former high-flying New York art dealer turned debtor, jailbird and fugitive. He made oodles of the stuff and then lost it all, leaving a string of wealthy art collectors and galleries to lick their wounds over the colossal debts he never repaid.

The Kitchen review – more gangsters' molls taking over the reins

★★★ THE KITCHEN More gangsters' molls taking over the reins

Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elizabeth Moss star in female-led crime thriller

Three women decide to take over their husbands’ criminal activities, proving more than a match for the men who dominate the underworld. If this outline of The Kitchen sounds familiar, it’s because it was just last year that Steve McQueen’s lauded crime thriller Widows had much the same premise.

Power, politics and Peaky Blinders - the Shelby family return for Series 5

Steam-punk gangsters invade the corridors of Westminster

This is how Steven Knight pictured Peaky Blinders when he first set about creating it. “I was very keen not to do a traditional British period drama, especially where it comes to depictions of working class people. Where the impulse is to say ‘it’s a shame, it’s a pity, isn’t it awful, wasn’t everything terrible for women’.

Keeping Faith, Episode 4 Series 2, BBC One review - murders aplenty

★★★ KEEPING FAITH, BBC ONE Murders aplenty

Husband Evan leaves prison, just as Faith risks going in

Life on the Welsh coast isn’t getting any easier: defendant Madlen was found guilty of murder, husband Evan was coming home from prison, and Faith had just given Steve Baldini a rather uncomfortable snog on the beach. She’s probably pining for that first series now, at least the hubby was out of the picture.